| NimbleX 2008 Manual |
This manual is a work in progress!
Boot OptionsAbout -- short description of NimbleX About NimbleXNimbleX is a small but versatile operating system which is able to boot in various fashion, like from a small 8 cm CD but also from flash memory (USB pens, Mp3 players, ...), from hard drives and even from the network. Because it runs entirely from a CD, USB or network it doesn't require installation or even a hard drive. NimbleX is based on Slackware with the use of linux-live scripts and is has a lot of this distribution advantages. One of them is the availability of thousands of free software that can be found in the form of packages. The beauty of it is that even if is small it has a beautiful graphical interface and also a lot of built in software for browsing the internet, writing documents, listening to music, playing movies and many more. You even have basic server functionality. Parameters specific to NimbleXSome of the following boot parameters are very important because they can help you boot NimbleX in various ways, sometimes better than the default boot configuration. changes=/nimblex will save all the changes where you have nimblex, in a directory called changes if your filesystem is writable. This is usually the prefered option because you don't have to do anything, it just needs a decent filesystem. from=/nimblex ---> Here we assume that all the files from the NimbleX CD where copied in a directory called nimblex that's located in the root on one of your partitions or on a USB memory. It doesn't matter on which partition you stored this directory, it just matters that you specify the correct path. If you store the nimblex directory in another one called useless_stuff :) you just have to specify like this: from=/useless_stuff/nimblex Actually it doesn't really have to be a directory! It can be the .iso file. Let's assume that you stored the .iso file in a directory called Download then you can boot NimbleX faster straight form that file like this: from=/Download/NimbleX-2008.iso autoexec=command1;command2 ---> Skips the login prompt and executes the commands you specify. For some of the commands you also have to use sleep~999999 because in some cases NimbleX will auto shutdown after the commands are executed. sleep delays reboot for a number of seconds. The tilta (~) character is treated like a space here. toram or copy2ram ---> provides the best speed out there for NimbleX during utilization. It slows booting time because it copies all the files in RAM but it allows you to utilize the optical drive and provides a very good performance in the graphical interface. This one is especially useful when you boot from the CD. load=module1;module2 ---> allows you to load a modules from the /optional/ directory. If you want to load modules automatically just copy them in the /modules/ directory. noload=module1;module_x ---> allows you to disable loading of the modules from the /modules/ directory. passwd=yourpass ---> Changes the default "toor" password to "yourpass". If you use "ask" instead of "yourpass" you'll have to enter the new password during boot. httpfs=http://10.10.1.1/NimbleX-2008.iso ---> Allows you to boot NimbleX from a http server where the NimbleX iso is stored. Keep in mind that you have to use the IP address of the server (not the DNS name) and before using the parameter make sure you have the correct http address to allow you to reach the ISO from a browser or something. The NO parameters: nopcmcia -> disable PCMCIA Return to Boot Options Tips for installing NimbleXStarting with NimbleX 2008RC, it can be installed very easily on the HDD or on a USB drive using the built-in installer. There is an icon on the KDE Desktop and you can use that to fire the installer. The installer was designed to be usefull in several cases:
You can read more on the forum! Return to Boot Options
Kernel Options: vgaThis parameter allows you to get more lines of text and more colors in the console. Kernel Options: apmAPM is one of the two power management strategies used on current computers. It is mainly used with laptops for functions like suspend to disk, but it may also be responsible for switching off the computer after power down. APM relies on a correct working BIOS. If the BIOS is broken, APM may have only limited use or even prevent the computer from working. Therefore, it may be switched off with the parameter Kernel Options: acpiACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) is a standard that defines power and configuration management interfaces between an operating system and the BIOS. By default, acpi is switched on when a BIOS is detected that is newer than from year 2000. There are several commonly used parameters to control the behavior of ACPI: Kernel Options: ideIDE is, unlike SCSI, commonly used in most desktop workstations. To circumvent some hardware problems that occur with IDE systems, use the kernel parameter: |